About two dozen Iraqi women demonstrated on Saturday in Baghdad against a draft law approved by the Iraqi cabinet that would permit the marriage of nine-year-old girls and automatically give child custody to fathers.

“On this day of women, women of Iraq are in mourning,” the protesters shouted.

“We believe that this is a crime against humanity,” said Hanaa Eduar, a prominent Iraqi human rights activist. “It would deprive a girl of her right to live a normal childhood.”

Shi’ite Islamists have come to lead the government and look to impose their religious values on society at large.

It describes girls as reaching puberty at nine, making them fit for marriage, makes the father sole guardian of his children at two and condones a husband’s right to insist on sexual intercourse with his wife whenever he wishes.

The legislation is referred to as the Ja’afari Law, named after the sixth Shi’ite imam Ja’afar al-Sadiq, who founded his own school of jurisprudence.

The draft was put forward by Justice Minister Hassan al-Shimari, a member of the Shi’ite Islamist Fadila party.

Mohammed, the Muslim prophet, married a six-year-old, so Islamic law has no problem with raping nine-year-olds.

To coincide with this, the British Government, alongside the Guardian and a coalition of advocacy groups has launched a national and international campaign to end FGM. It will be based in London and Nairobi, and it combines political advocacy and lobbying with grassroots action.

The goal of the campaign is to end FGM in a generation. Progress is being made. In 2012 a UN General Assembly resolution called for its eradication, and as of 2013 an estimated 10,000 communities have abandoned the practice.

Allegations of severe child abuse at an Ohio madrassah (Islamic school) are being investigated by police after a group of Somali children (who attend a public school in the daytime) reported being chained to a wall by their wrists and ankles and beaten with a long stick for not learning their religious texts as instructed.

In addition, another child reported witnessing the beatings as well as being beaten himself on his legs with a belt. In addition, he reported having seen a student have his head stepped on for complaining of a headache.

The children, between the ages of eight and 10, all attend the madrassah located in the Masjid As-Salaamah mosque in Columbus.

The allegations came amid a normal day at Mark Twain Elementary school in Westerville, where a class of mostly Somali children learning English were having a discussion with their teacher. The teacher happened to remark that she was impressed with the children’s knowledge of the Koran.

There are some who speculate that the location of the biblical city of Sodom was in Saudi Arabia. They may have a case. Saudi Arabia is what happens when you combine absolute evil with ungodly amounts of money.

It’s not just that monsters like Fayhan al-Ghamdi exist in Saudi Arabia. They exist everywhere. But in the heartland of Islam, where Mohammed first began his wave of crimes against women and little girls, they operate with the sanction of the state.

Sheikh Fayhan al-Ghamdi, an Islamic television preacher in Saudi Arabia, beat Lama, his 5-year-old daughter to death during a custodial visit. Saudi police had found the 5-year-old wandering the streets, she was taken to the hospital and placed in intensive care.

The side of her head had been mashed in, her back was broken, she had a skull fracture, bleeding in the head, a broken left hand, bruises all over her body, and burns that apparently came from an iron. One of her fingernails had been pulled out. There were signs that she had been sexually assaulted in various ways that are too horrific to describe, but that are in serial killer territory.